1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper-like material processing apparatus into which paper-like material; for instance, plural kinds of bank notes are input in a lump, the inserted bank notes are taken out one sheet at time, classified and stacked by uniformly arranging directions of the inserted bank notes by kind of money and a posture correction device that is incorporated in, for instance, a paper-like material processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Paper-like material such as bank note, merchandise bonds or other securities are circulating and functioning as key media in social and economical activities. A large amount of the paper-like material are collected to specific points and arranged by nominal values or kinds during the circulating process.
For automatic processing as well as labor saving of these arranging activities, a paper-like material processing apparatus has been so far used. This paper-like material processing apparatus accepts paper-like material in loose state input into an insert port in a lump, takes out the inserted sheets one by one and detects kinds of respective paper-like material by a detector. The paper-like material are classified by kind or bundled every 100 sheets.
By the way, paper-like materials are in four-postures; top and bottom, and front and back. In many cases, these paper-like materials are collected in specific circulating points in the state not properly arranged and they have to be segregated and arranged properly.
A conventional processing apparatus has a reversing function for reversing both the front and back sides while conveying them based on the result of detection by a detector in order for making the front and back sides uniform and stack them in the same stackers.
On the other hand, paper-like materials taken out of the insert port, for instance, bank note, merchandise bonds or other securities differ in size depending on nominal values of respective materials. Because of this, if paper-like materials in different sizes were set in a lump in the insert port, it is highly possible that small sized materials may be buried among the maximum size materials and can be shifted/skewed.
Paper-like materials taken out in the mixed state are conveyed by a conveyor belt pair to the detector. The detector reads various kinds of information from the surfaces of paper-like materials conveyed by roller pairs, performs the logical operation of the read information and compares with reference information. Thus, stain, presence of damage, kind (nominal value in case of bank note), 4 directions of top, bottom, front and back of paper-like materials are detected. Much shifted/skewed paper-like materials are rejected because they cannot be detected from various kinds of information.
Further, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. Hei 3-58984 (laid open on Sep. 9, 1991), the front and back sides are automatically reversed by 180xc2x0 with a twist belt. According to this reversing mechanism, paper-like materials rotate around the central point of the twist belt as a principle and therefore, before entering and after coming out of the twist belt, the lateral shift is caused on paper-like materials and it is difficult to arrange them uniform in the lateral direction when stacking or binding them.
In order for solving these problems, the function to correct postures of taken out paper-like materials before conveying them to the detector become necessary. Furthermore, from the demand for high speed processing and/or the mass processing, a high speed and highly reliable posture correction device with less variation after the posture correction is required.
The posture correction device is equipped with, for instance, a transmission light sensor array as a detector at its inlet side. The postures of paper-like materials taken out of the insert port are detected by this light sensor array. The posture correction device calculates an amount of shift and a skew angle of paper-like materials from the center line of the conveyor from the result of detection by the light sensor array.
Further, the posture correction device is equipped with, for instance, the first and second correction mechanisms in the same structure on a base. Each of the posture correction mechanism has a U-shape support frame, a drive shaft mounted between both sidewalls that are bent and formed at both ends of the base of this support frame and correction rollers mounted to this drive shaft. Rubber rollers are kept in contact with the upper side of the correction rollers and these rubber rollers are supported between the sidewalls by the shaft. On the outer surface of one sidewall of the support frame, a first stepping motor is installed and this first stepping motor is directly connected to the drive shaft of the correction rollers.
About the central part of the base portion of the support frame is supported by a sub-shaft and this sub-shaft is rotatably held by a housing. When viewed from above, the support frame is supported by the sub-shaft so as to be able to rotate around the intersecting point of the center line of the conveying path with the roller axial line. A second driving motor is connected to the lower end of the sub-shaft by way of a pulley and a belt.
When the first driving motor is driven, the sub-shaft is rotated via the pulley, belt and pulley, the support frame is rotated by a prescribed angle and thus, the shift and skew of a paper-like material are corrected.
However, in a conventional technology, the first driving motor is installed at the outer surface of one sidewall of the support frame. As the driving shaft of this first driving motor is directly connected to the correction roller shaft, when the support frame was rotated around the intersecting point of the center line of the conveying path with the roller axial line, its moment of inertia became large.
The number of sheets taken out per unit time, that is, the number of sheets that can be processed by the processing apparatus is determined by the time required for correcting the posture of a sheet. In the conventional technology, the time required for rotating the support frame by a required angle is long because the inertia of the support frame is large. Accordingly, the posture of bank notes having much skew or shift can not be corrected.
So, for correcting postures paper-like materials having much skew or shift, it was necessitated to install a support frame including roller pairs at multiple stages and as a result, the conveying path became long and the apparatus became large in size.
Further, for rotating the support frame having the large moment of inertia including correction roller pairs at a high speed, there was such a problem that an expensive servomotor had to be used as the second driving motor and cost was increased.
An object of this invention is to provide a posture correction device for enabling the posture correction of paper-like material at a high speed and high accuracy by making the moment of inertia of a support frame small and a paper-like material processing apparatus provided with a posture correction device.
According to this invention, a posture correction device is provided. This posture correction device comprises: a detector configured to detect a posture of conveyed paper-like material; and a posture correction mechanism configured to correct the posture of the paper-like material according to the postures of paper-like material detected by the detector. The posture correction mechanism includes: a correction roller pair configured to convey the paper-like materials by clamping them; a support frame configured to support the correction roller pair; a first driving mechanism, provided separately from the support frame, configured to rotate and drive the correction roller pair; and a second driving mechanism to tilt the correction roller pair by a prescribed angle in the conveying direction of the paper-like materials by rotating the support frame.
Further, according to this invention, a paper-like material processing apparatus is provided. This paper-like material processing apparatus comprises: an insert port configured to accommodate paper-like materials in a lump; a take-out mechanism configured to take out paper-like materials accommodated in the insert port one by one sheet; a conveying mechanism configured to convey the paper-like materials taken out by the take-out mechanism along the conveying path; a detector configured to detect a posture of paper-like materials conveyed by the conveying mechanism; a correction mechanism configured to correct the posture of the paper-like materials according to the posture of paper-like material detected by the detector; and a classifying mechanism configured to classify the paper-like material after the posture was corrected by the posture correction mechanism according to classification information. The posture correction mechanism includes: a correction roller pair configured to convey the paper-like materials by clamping them; a support frame configured to support the correction roller pair; a first driving mechanism, provided separately from the support frame, configured to rotate and drive the correction roller pair; and a second driving mechanism configured to tilt the correction roller pair by a prescribed angle in the conveying direction of the paper-like materials by rotating the support frame.